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Hoppy Healthy Easter!

I can’t believe Easter is this Sunday! I feel completely unprepared, as the month of March has flown by!

The typical Easter treats are filled with artificial food coloring, artificial flavorings, sugar and fat. While I’ll let my kids indulge in some of these treats in moderation (what’s Easter without Bunny Big Ears?) I also like to make healthier alternatives that taste just as good as they look.

Yesterday I made my own trail mix bars shaped like Easter bunnies, which was a special surprise for my kids as they celebrated their last day of school before Spring Break!

These bars contain a variety of ingredients I found in my pantry, including whole-grain oats, nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins and dried apples. You can vary the ingredients based on what you have lying around. These bars are a great way to use up the leftover bits and pieces of ingredients you have to clean out your

pantry!

Ingredients

3 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup raisins

handful dried apples, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup Better ‘n Peanut Butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350

2. Mix together all of the dry ingredients.

3. Melt the honey and Better ‘n Peanut Butter in a bowl in the microwave for 45 seconds.

6. Bake for 20 minutes (if jelly roll pan) less if you are using a smaller whoopie pie pan

7. Cut into bars and freeze.

8. Decorate the frozen bars if you’d like or just serve plain! You can make your own healthy cool whip. There is a great recipe on Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures. Simply combine 1 cup milk, 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp xanthan gum. Mix in a mixer on high for two minutes. Spread over the bars and decorate as you’d like.

This is a much healthier alternative to store-bought bars or the typical Easter treats!

Just one serving of jelly beans (35 pieces) has 140 calories and 28 grams of sugar, which is more than the entire Recommended Daily Value of sugar. Peeps may be fat-free, but one serving has a whopping 34 grams of sugar! More disturbing than the sugar is the ingredients in Starburst Jely Beans (obrained from www.foodfacts.com) includes: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Food Starch Modified Apple(s) Juice from Concentrate, Citric Acid, Confectioner’s Glaze, Acacia Gum, Natural and Artificial Coloring (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1)

Do you make your own healthier Easter treats? What are your favorite Easter indulgences?